Well fancy that: The New York Times has learned what Times Watch has been
pointing out for weeks: Not even New Yorkers want a large mosque built
two blocks from the site of the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

New York residents were previously praised by Times reporters like Sheryl Gay Stolberg as better informed and thus more tolerant of the idea of a mosque at Ground Zero than ignorant outsiders (ignoring the results of a Quinnipiac poll showing otherwise).

But
a New York Times poll conducted last week showed that New Yorkers don't
like the idea of building a mosque near the site of the 9-11 terrorist
attacks anymore than the rest of the ignorant country. In fact, New
York City residents (that includes Manhattan and the outer boroughs)
oppose it by a 50%-35% margin. Yes, the nationwide opposition to the
construction, twice declaimed as a "nativist impulse" by the paper's main political writer Matt Bai, has infected even the tolerant, sophisticated liberals of Manhattan.

Building its story around the poll, reporters Michael Barbaro and Marjorie Connelly reported on last Friday's front page: "New Yorkers Divided Over Islamic Center, Poll Finds." (Actually New Yorkers are more than merely divided but are mostly opposed to the mosque being built near Ground Zero.)

Two-thirds
of New York City residents want a planned Muslim community center and
mosque to be relocated to a less controversial site farther away from
ground zero in Lower Manhattan, including many who describe themselves
as supporters of the project, according to a New York Times poll.

The
poll indicates that support for the 13-story complex, which organizers
said would promote moderate Islam and interfaith dialogue, is tepid in
its hometown.

....

Over all, 50 percent of those surveyed
oppose building the project two blocks north of the World Trade Center
site, even though a majority believe that the developers have the right
to do so. Thirty-five percent favor it.

Opposition is more
intense in the boroughs outside Manhattan - for example, 54 percent in
the Bronx - but it is even strong in Manhattan, considered a bastion
of religious tolerance, where 41 percent are against it.

The poll was conducted Aug. 27 to 31 with 892 adults. The margin of sampling error is plus or minus three percentage points.

It
suggested that Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the center's most ardent and
public defender, has not unified public opinion around the issue. Asked
if they approved or disapproved of how he had handled the subject, city
residents were evenly split.

Indeed, Times reporters took to Twitter
to gush over NYC Mayor Bloomberg's weepy speech in defense of building
the mosque near the site of terrorist attacks committed in the name of
Islam. The Times worked in its standard jab against Newt and Palin as
outsiders (albeit outsiders who are on the side of the majority of New
Yorkers on this issue):

While a majority said
politicians in New York should take a stand on the issue, most
disapprove of those outside the city weighing in: Newt Gingrich and
Sarah Palin, among others, have tried to rally opposition to the center.

The article was accompanied on the editorial page by a righteously concerned editorial, "Mistrust and the Mosque," moaning how New Yorkers had failed to teach a moral lesson to the ignorant masses.

The
furor over the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque near ground
zero keeps giving us new reasons for dismay. As politicians and
commentators work themselves and viewers into a rage, others who should
be standing up for freedom and tolerance tiptoe away.

To the
growing pile of discouragement, add this: A New York Times poll of New
York City residents that found that even this city, the country's most diverse and cosmopolitan, is not immune to suspicion and to a sadly wary misunderstanding of Muslim-Americans.

....

Tolerance,
however, isn't the same as understanding, so it is appalling to see New
Yorkers who could lead us all away from mosque madness, who should know
better, playing to people's worst instincts.

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